Unprecedented size, scope in president's proposal
WASHINGTON -- This is change, whether you believe in it or not. And not just pocket change.
Following through on many of his campaign promises, President Obama wants to spend about $3.6 trillion next year to pull the nation out of recession and begin major new initiatives in health care, energy and education.
All that and more is contained in a 134-page budget request for 2010 and beyond that is unprecedented in size, breathtaking in scope and sure to have a major impact on millions of Americans — if he can get much of it through Congress.
It's a budget plan that would help the young by increasing their chances of getting a college education and the poor by providing funds for health insurance. It seeks to clean the air and reduce the USA's dependence on foreign oil. It would cut taxes on low- and middle-income Americans while raising them, starting in 2011, on couples who make at least $250,000 a year.
All this would come at a price to be paid by in the future: annual deficits of at least $500 billion, and a federal debt that would reach $23 trillion in a decade.
Like Ronald Reagan for Republicans 28 years ago, the new Democratic president is staking out his party's position on spending and taxes. Whereas Reagan sought to limit government, Obama wants to expand its reach. And he's determined to tackle the nation's most pressing issues, despite setbacks suffered by fellow Democrats Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter in similar efforts.
"These are extraordinary times," Obama senior adviser David Axelrod says. "We're not in a position to think incrementally in terms of recovery, in terms of financial stability."
The most jarring difference is with the last eight years — a period in which George W. Bush focused on sweeping tax cuts and spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"If anyone disputes the fact that elections can make a difference, all you have to do is look at the budget," says Thomas Mann, a political scholar at the Brookings Institution. The differences between Obama and Bush, he says, are "day and night."
In little more than five weeks, Obama has shown he intends to think big and act quickly. He's already agreed to spend nearly $800 billion over two years to try to jump-start the economy. He's not only pressed Congress for the second half of a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, he's reserving the option for another $750 billion on top of that.
Rather than focus solely on the immediate economic problems, however, Obama's budget shows he wants to work simultaneously toward long-term goals such as overhauling the health care system and achieving energy independence.
"This budget is Chapter Two," says John Podesta, former White House chief of staff under Clinton and director of Obama's post-election transition team. Obama "wants to do the big reforms that are going to lead to long-term, sustainable growth."
It's a lot to ask of Congress. But administration officials say there's no time to wait.
"Is it too much? I certainly hope not," says White House budget director Peter Orszag, who was a driving force in pushing health care to the top of the president's agenda.
Some of it, no doubt, will be too much. Republicans are balking at the sight of tax increases and squawking about domestic spending increases.
"The administration's plan is a job killer, plain and simple," says House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio. Adds Tony Fratto, Bush's former deputy press secretary: "Trying to mask huge spending increases under the cloak of 'fiscal responsibility' is the height of audacity."
